


Accidental Proposal

by GreenNebulae



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Accident, Betrothal Necklace, F/M, Pirates, Zuko is an Awkward Turtleduck, accidental proposal, pre Zutara
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2018-12-28
Packaged: 2019-09-29 11:20:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17202524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreenNebulae/pseuds/GreenNebulae
Summary: “Perhaps in exchange I can restore something you’ve lost.” He smirks, knowing this would be it. There is nothing he wouldn’t do for a piece of his mother, so surely she is the same. He lifts his hands around her, holding her necklace up to her throat. Prince Zuko is not entirely sure what he expects to happen. He anticipates some pleading, demands, more angry scowls, or absolute refusal. Not screaming.“I, uh, didn’t mean it?” Zuko stammers





	Accidental Proposal

S1E9

 

“I’ll save you from the pirates” He says as he grabs her wrist, and from the look in her eyes he knows she understands that he is much worse. Good. Her fear could be used to get her to give up the avatar. He doesn’t truly intend to hurt her, but she doesn’t need to know that. She tries to waterbend, but he prevents her from moving enough, and her knowledge of the element is rudimentary at best. He knows he is only wary because she is the first waterbender Zuko has ever met, but once she is tied to the tree he knows she is no threat.

After she is his prisoner, he realizes that she is younger than he is. No matter. She knows where the Avatar is. Despite her position, she doesn’t seem scared. She levels him with a glare and scowl and he clenches his fist.

“Tell me where he is, and I won’t hurt you or your brother.” That’s a promise he can keep. He doesn’t care about them. They can leave as soon as the avatar is in his custody.  
“Go jump in the river!” She shouts, and no one moves. 

He hears two voices in his head in an instant. His father, who commands he use fire to make her talk, to burn her until she betrays the avatar, that resistance can only be quelled with strength. His uncle, who says force is not always the answer, violence is often unnecessary, and even though people are aligned against each other they can have much in common.

“Try to understand,” he begins as he walks towards her, plastering a smile onto his face he knows is fake and awkward. “I need to capture him to restore something I’ve lost; my honor.” She continues to look away from him, even as he circles the tree she is tied to. Maybe honor does not mean anything to the water tribe, maybe it means nothing to peasants. 

“Perhaps in exchange I can restore something you’ve lost.” He smirks, knowing this would be it. There is nothing he wouldn’t do for a piece of his mother, so surely she is the same. He lifts his hands around her, holding her necklace up to her throat. Prince Zuko is not entirely sure what he expects to happen. He anticipates some pleading, demands, more angry scowls, or absolute refusal. Not screaming.

He almost drops the necklace as she thrashes against the tree with all of her might. She continues screaming, just screams from pure terror, as if he had lit the tree on fire. Prince Zuko is at a loss and locks eyes with his uncle, who frowns in worry. She thrashes and screams like she is no longer human, but the savage his father warned him about. The water around them starts moving violently; Zuko pulls the necklace back as he stares as the waves.

“I, uh, didn’t mean it?” Zuko stammers as the pirates exchange worried glances with each other. His guards remain large and stoic but she doesn’t see them, her eyes are shut. The water rocks their boats dangerously, splashing on deck and threatening disaster.  
“Please stop screaming.” He deadpans. Sure, it may draw the avatar, but he does not know what the avatar will think he’s doing or the wrath he’ll bring down when he hears her. She is going to lose her voice forever if she keeps this up, she sounds like she’s being burned at the stake. He looks to the sky, expecting an angry avatar full of fury, but he does not come and the animal draws breath and screams anew.  
“Excuse me, if I may.” Iroh walks up to the waterbender and bows. The prince is not sure why, as she is still out of her mind.  
“No!” Her scream is cut off suddenly as Iroh places a hand on her shoulder. The water stills instantly. Her eyes open in terror and she is frozen despite her heaving chest.  
“If I may, my nephew did not understand what he was implying when he scared you so.” Zuko narrows his eyes as he hides the necklace behind his back. Her eyes remain wide as his uncle returns his hand to his person. Zuko is not sure she even understands them anymore. She trembles, Iroh shoots him a look, and Zuko breathes steam out of his nose. Really? Apologize? He looks to the water tribe peasant and sighs.

“Right, uh, sorry. I just meant to return it to you. Like a trade. Avatar. Necklace. Necklace. Avatar.” He shifts his hands from side to side to make his point.  
“You didn’t want…” her voice is weak, still it fades, “mean…”

Katara is struck with the thought that if he doesn’t know, he couldn’t have meant it the way she thought. If she tells him now he could use it against her. Either way, she loses. She has heard stories from their past. Once the necklace is on, the marriage is finalized. The woman’s choice in it is desired, but from marriages for alliances before, from men kidnapping would be brides, she knows what it means if Zuko puts it on her. 

“My nephew means no harm to you, in body or spirit.” Katara turns to the older man. Her heart is pounding wildly. Her throat burns. “Let us start over.” The man bows. “My name is Iroh, this is my nephew Zuko. What is your name?” _Prince_ Zuko watches as she stares at them, no different from any other frightened animal. His uncle is patient and eventually the peasant answers.  
“Katara.” She mutters. She stares at his feet. “Katara.” She says louder as she tries to send him a matching glare, but his face softens at the tears in her eyes. She tries to be angry. She tries to summon the water to whip them, but she is trembling. Her heart is racing. Her throat is pounding.

“Katara,” Iroh starts but pauses as he looks around them. He clears his throat. “Prince Zuko, perhaps we should take our captive on board where we can talk in privacy.”  
“No one goes anywhere without keeping their word. You promised us a scroll!” The pirates interrupt.  
“I wonder how much money this is worth.” Zuko says conversationally as he holds the scroll over the flame in his palm.  
“NO!” the pirates shout. He smirks.  
“A lot apparently. Now you help me find what I want and you’ll get this back and everyone goes home happy. Search the woods for the boy and meet back here.”  
“Fine.” The captain grumbles and takes his men off into the woods to search for the monk.

…

Katara is numb as she is led to the ship. They bind her hands but leave her to walk on her own. Arriving at the captain’s quarters, the guards leave to go outside and keep watch, and Katara is left with Zuko and Iroh. She realizes she’s been tricked. They are royalty, of course they know about her tribe’s customs, just as she knows theirs. 

“I won’t be your wife.” She spits as soon as she musters up the courage to. Zuko, who was whispering to his uncle, freezes and whips his head to her. She trembles, but she holds her head up high.  
“How dare you make such an assumption, as if I, the prince of the fire nation, would even want to marry you!” Zuko flares his hands out to the side and the temperature of the room spikes.  
“Prince Zuko…” Iroh warns as the picture begins to become clear to him.  
“I only offered to return the stupid necklace for your help in finding the Avatar! I am disgusted by the thought of even touching you, peasant!”  
“You’re the one who proposed!” Katara yells with a cracking voice before she can stop herself. She’s standing and staring up at them.  
“Proposed?” Zuko lets the words fall off his lips as his own arms lower in shock. When did he? Surely she didn’t think that’s what had happened. He didn’t begin any of the courting rituals needed to even make her think that. He offered no jewels, gave no vows.  
“Would I be correct in assuming this is a misunderstanding based on the significance of the necklace?”  
“Necklace?” Zuko echoes as he turns to his uncle.  
“Miss Katara, would you explain to us how marriage works in the water tribe?” Katara purses her lips together.  
“Tell us!” Zuko demands, slamming his hands on the table.  
“Okay, then.” Iroh continues. “From what I’ve witnessed, it looks like presenting a woman with a necklace signifies the desire to marry.” Katara slowly nods. “And by offering the necklace to you, Zuko offered to marry you in exchange for information about the Avatar.” She nods again.  
“I didn’t…” Zuko stares back and forth.  
“And it would be terribly ignorant of us not to know this and to disregard what it means.” Zuko pales. Surely Uncle can’t mean he’d actually have to marry her.  
“Uncle…”  
“I didn’t accept it. I won’t accept it!” Katara firmly states. “No matter what you do, you-”  
“Silence!” Zuko yells, fire spewing from his mouth. Katara flinches back, tripping on the chair and ending up on the floor. Iroh sends Zuko a look, and Zuko looks away to show how little he cares.

“I think, Katara, that given our mistreatment of you, it would only be fair to give you back the necklace and send you on your way.” At this point, whatever gets her out of here sounds okay with the prince. Avatar or not. He will not be tricked into marrying a peasant!  
“It doesn’t work like that.” Katara stands. “I’d have to take it from you. Any effort on your part to give it to me is a proposal, and then I can’t accept it otherwise I’m saying yes.” Katara explains. If they don’t know anything, let them think she has to accept it for it to work. Zuko places the necklace on the desk.

Iroh says nothing, but he knows she is lying. If he were simply asking, she would have been assertive, insulting. She would have refused. The blind panic implied a lack of choice. Perhaps it is putting the necklace on someone that claims them, and water tribe women have no choice? That sounds barbaric, and he can understand her fears. He will let her keep her lie.

“Where did you even get my mother’s necklace from?”  
“I didn’t steal it, if that’s what you’re wondering.”  
“It wouldn’t surprise me.” She bites as she stares as it.  
“Now, where is the avatar?”  
“Go jump in the river!” before Zuko could reply, he hears shouting from outside. “Stay with her uncle. She may be useful yet.” Zuko leaves and Katara and Iroh look to the necklace.  
“So we cannot give it to you?”  
“No.”  
“I cannot accidentally leave it here as I left for tea?”  
“No.”  
“What if I threw it away, if I didn’t want it anymore, and you were to dig for it in the trash?” Katara pauses, and before she can answer, she hears Zuko yelling and the sounds of a fight. Iroh watches Katara run to the edge of the boat before following her, and he pockets the necklace. He doesn’t want to accidentally marry her either. 

...

“Katara, you’re okay!” Aang shouts, relieved, as he sees her waiting on top of the boat. Sokka smiles behind him, relieved that his sister is okay. Katara jumps off the boat and lands on a swirling ball of air before falling into Sokka’s arms. He cuts her binds and she turns to the ship. Since Iroh left, it was just her, meaning the ship was ripe for the taking. 

“Help me get this boat back in the water so we can get out of here.” In the chaos of escaping, Katara manages to forget about her mother’s necklace for a moment. Staring out at the wreckage of his boat, Zuko does as well.


End file.
